Lucky had been lounging in her living room and flipping through the channels on her viewscreen. Outside a wind was blowing steadily and cold rain was falling in sheets, not the kind of weather to go for a stroll.  As she got up to go to the kitchen she heard a buzz; someone was at the door.

Hurriedly, she walked to the entrance hall, opened the door to find Red, a new Trooper in her squad standing outside, he was dripping wet and looked absolutely miserable.

“Come on in you, you look like you could use a warm beverage”

As she led him to the kitchen she offered him a fresh cup of coffee, might as well since she was making some for herself. After a split-second of hesitation he quietly accepted as he took a seat in one of the chairs at the table. The kitchen was of a fair size, the table wasn’t too small nor too large, just big enough to comfortably seat 3 or 4 people.  Pouring the hot liquid into two tall mugs, she set some cream and sugar on the table before giving her fellow Trooper one of the mugs of black coffee.
“Wasn’t sure how you liked it” she said quietly as she sat across from him.

“Its fine, thank you” he replied as he took a sip.

“So, what brings you here on such a cold, dreary day?”

“Well, I was coming to you because High command are calling upon my help as well as yours”

“Why us?”

“I’m not sure to be honest”

“Well ten, let us finish our beverages before we hop over there and jump into god-knows what their plans are, shall we? I have a feeling we’ll both be in need of some stiff drinks when that business will be over with”

****    A half our later    ****
“Sit down you two, this won’t take very long”
They had been summoned to Rizzit’s office and that was a rare occurrence, this could only mean a special if not dangerous assignment.

As they both took their seats he reclined slightly into his own and stared off into space.

“Have any of you heard about the Hand of Judgment?”

“I’ve read about them very briefly in some history documents” Lucky put in after a moment’s silence.

“They were basically a band of rogue stormtroopers whom wreaked havoc in a lot of places” he added for everyone’s benefit.

“The group was no more but it seems as though some amateurs are trying to revive it, about a day or so ago we got news that they’re hiding out on Maridun, the planet is home to the  Amanin, people aren’t very welcome there due to the planet’s history of enslavement and whatnot. Perfect place for the rebirth of something that has been extinguished for a very long time”

“Why us?” Red asked suddenly. “Why not a squad or someone with more experience?”

“Luckystar has enough experience and it will do you some good to get more experience under your belt, it’s a small job really. We need you guys to get one of them back to us, think along the lines of a hostage operation. There will be a small team of soldiers with you of course but I’m putting this into your hands, because I know you can be as successful as a small team as say..A whole squad or Platoon for that matter.  Now go, pack only the necessities and gear up, you leave within the hour"

After they had been dismissed, Lucky had hurried on over to her place, and from her armoury pulled out the standard Stormtrooper armor, a few frags, some C-22s as well as her E-45, two DC-15s and to top it all off: some spare ammo, all of which she stowed in a duffel.

Setting the bag aside she wormed herself into her bodyglove and started piecing her armor together, she'd done this task so many times it came naturally to her and she found herself all suited up in no time. As she walked out of the condo, she grabbed her helmet and gloves which she elected to put on during the ride to Maridun. The natives- the Amanin seemed like a tough bunch indeed and she did not wish to cross paths with them on a regular basis after this was over, from what Rizzit had told them and from her own research she had concluded taht you needed to have your wits about you when you were woring around these guys. Wanting to stay on the friendly side of things she downloaded the Amanese dictionary to her datapad, she would study the language on the way over...Cleaning her gear didn't take that long.

Noting the time, she hurried on over to the shuttle and found Red already on the shutle, smoking a cigar.

"Might want to finish that smoke before we take off...You enever know how rought the ride can be and I don't really want to be performing first-aid on you on the way there.." this last remark she said with a smile on her face.

"Yes, ma'am" he replied as he took a deep, final drag before dropping it to the floor and grinding the remains with the heel of his boot.

"Please don't call me that..Makes me feel  a lot older than I am"

"OK..." He said though she could tell that he had first hesitated, almost using the word ma'am again.

As she sat in her jumpseat and started cleaning her equipment, sh heard soft static and the pilot's voice came over the PA.

"Buckle up you two, bad weather's coming in so it's going to be a bit of a bumpy ride until we're out of orbit, I'll let you know when we're forty-five minutes away from Maridun which might take a while so I hope y'all brought something to do, now sit back and enjoy the ride."

"Damn...I didn't bring uch to do..." mumbled Red as he took his seat.

"It's fine, we have some language studies to do after I've finished cleaning my gear; won't take long. I figure if we know a bit of Amanese by the time we get there the people should be somewhat friendly toward us"

"Sounds good to me" he said cheering up a little, in his voice she could tell he was nervous as this was technically his first mission...The Academy training didn't really count as actual work, it was just that..Training.

"You'll do just fine" she said softly as she started on one of her DC-15s.

As she waited for the ramp to lower fully, she wondered what they would find on the other side of the ramp. She suspected some of the Amanin were awaiting their arrival not far away, she hoped they would be friendly toward herself and her team. As her thoughts wandered to each man on the small five-man team, she heard a thud and started walking slowly down the ramp.

As she suspected there was a small party of people waiting for them, she was pleased to see that there were two Humans amongst the party, she knew that one of the other men was one of the Amanin and one of them was a species she had never seen before.

"Hello and welcome to Maridun, my name is Gord" said a tall, burly Human. He was wearing dark hair which blended well with the dark clothing he wore. "This is Kurnak, he's one of the Amanin"- he said pointing to a tall creature with little beady eyes and greenish-yellow, scaly skin.

"Whose the other one?" Red asked looking at the other specie standing beside Kurnak.

"My name is Khull" said the creature, it was looking around for something though she couldn't tell what it was searching for.

"He's a Lurmen, another of the native species of this planet" added Gord to their benefit.

Lucky digested the information in silence, the Lurmen was short, its head was oddly placed and it wore clothing of a greyish color. As she watched a large insect flew up to Khull and the two seemed to be silently communicating amongst one another. The flying insect reminded her of a butterfly though it was large, she guessed about the size of her hand if not more.

"This is my carrier butterfly, he goes wherever i go" explainde Khull whom she guessed had sensed their curiosity.

"Shall we get going then?" Asked Gord suddenly, introductions were over and they needed to get down to business. taking a hld of their gear, the stormtroopers followed their escorts.

Luckystar looked at the Trooper with abit of a n odd look on her face. She hadn't been asked the question in a long time.

"Well, this appears o be where we'll be loding for the duration of our stay here, everyone get a room ey, grab your gear and head off to your rooms. We've got a few hours to kill before Gord comes back to fetch us for an oficial briefing. Right now the three of them are working on assembling a group of key people which we will get to meet at  the debrief."

Having a few hours to relax was really not what she had in mind. I guess it'll have to do, I suspect there will be little time to relax, take in the sights and the like once we really know why we're here

Ever since they had that meeting and they found  out that they were going to have to deal with a few members from the Hand of Judgment, she had been feeling antsy; wanted to get the party started, wanted this over with and wanted to be back home sipping some Corellian Ale or down at the cantina with her squadmates enjoing some drinks and heading back home feeling satisfied with the day's work. She didn't want to be here, she had no choice to be here. this was their ob, tehy were trained for missions like this...But she was used to working with a full squad or very small jobs on her own. Not a few people whom she didn't know and a new squadmate fresh from the Academy, not that there was anything wrong with him being fresh meat but they could sometimes be...Trigger-happy folks.

Walking over to the reception area she got her room key, grabbed her bags and walked to a bank of turbolifts to go up to her room.

"I'll be on the third floor in room 320 if anyone needs me, otherwise meet back here in four hours"

She heard a few soft "yes ma'am"'s  before a chime sounded and she found herself staring at the open door of an empty turbolift.

When the turbolift reached her assigned floor and the door slid open she found herself having mixed feelings about the place. The lights cast an orange glow on the walls and ceiling, the floor was of a very dark shade of brown, almost black it seemed. As the glow from the lights went down the walls it seemed to die out when it reached the floor. Making a left she searched for the door with her room number on it, she found it in no time. The door had an old-fashioned look to it, the keycard slot seemed out of place. An old-fashioned key, the ones you had to insert and turn in the lock.

When she got the door open, shich she noted was surprisingly heavy compared to the ones in use these days she ok her time scanning the room which didn't have many furnishings, all the better she told herself.

To the right against the wall was a dresser, across from her was a window looking over she wasn't sure what yet but she suspected a compound or city of some sort, ro her left was a dobule bed and on the far wall was a mirror, beside it was a door leading to a bathroom with the essentials: a commode, a sink and a refresher. Good enough for a short stay

After taking a long, hot shower and a quick catnap she felt rejuvenated. The bed was a little firmer than she liked but she had still taken a fitfull nap, the water from the shower had smelled a little sulfuric but it hadn't been to much of an overpowering odor and soon she had completely forgotten about it.

Piecing her armor back together in a flash, she grabbed the weapons she had brought with her and headed downstairs. On the way down the turbolift made some ungodly sounds, as she reached the lobby she was thankful taht it hadn't broken down or plunged to the basement floor if there was one. As the door slid open she saw Red seated not far from the bank of turbolifts, she assumed he was waiting for her and the few others whom had come with them on this mission.

"Nervous?" She asked as she sat beside him, he was wringing his hands together repeatedly in a sort of rhythmic fashion. She took it to be nerves, this reminded her of her first few missions as a Trooper herself. She had been incredibly nervous those first few times, had almost been a trigger-happy young Trooper and found that her body shook somewhat at first with anticipation, nervousness,adrenaline...All those things.

"A little bit" she heard him say softly from inside of his helmet.

"You'll do just fine, take deep breaths and try to make your mnd a blank, should calm you down right away"


"We ready here?" she heard a somewhat familiat voice ask from near the entrance of the lobby, turning her head slightly she spotted Gord from the corner of her eye.

"Just about, just waiting for two more and then we'll be all set"

As she finished her sentence the turbolift doors opened and out stepped the remainder of their small group.

"Well then, shall we get going?" Gord asked before spinning on his heel and walking out of the hotel.

"The guy should learn good manners...Come on guys, let's follow him and see whre he takes us"

Lucky sensed Red's unease and she agreed with him. The building ahead of them looked unfit for a meeting place, the people lingering around it looked questionable, and the fact that Gord had silently up and left them made her even more suspicious.

"I don't like the looks of this however we must go at it and attend this supposed meeting, make sure your weapons are at the ready, locked and loaded in case things get dicey"

"Roger that" came  a few voices as they slowly advanced on the dilapidated building.

As Lucky started to pull the door open, she noted that it creaked very loudly and made her jaw ache thanks to the high frequency sound. It moaned and groaned and after  a few seconds of slowly opening the door, she heard a clang as the door seemed to come free, looking at her hand she noted in disbelief that the door had come clean off its hinges and that she was simply holding the old thing in her gloved hand. Frowning at the general disrepair of the place she tossed the door  to the side almost hitting one of the men who was leaning against the side. The individual in question gave her a look, grunted and turned away.

"What do you think we'll learn in this meeting about the hand of Judgment?" She heard one of the fresh Troopers ask excitedly to whomever he was speaking to, though she assumed this  question was for anyone to answer.

"Hush!" she hissed softly as they entered the building. The place looked almost like a huge, empty silo. There were a few bare, flickering bulbs here and there, she couldn't see very many furnishings, the power seemed to be out almost everywhere. The place absolutely reeked and smelled very dusty as though the place hadn't been cleaned or dusted in years. The overall look of the place made her uneasy.

I don't like the way this is going...

The meeting was short and Lucky seemed to have been completely ignored by the stranger, he had seemed to only see Red, no one else. The fact that they had been o fatly dismissed didn't sit well with her either, something seemed out of place; she wasn't sure what it was yet.

As they walked out Lucky was careful to scan her surroundings with more care than usual. As theys tepped out into the bright, blinding sun she quickly loooked about for the Troopers whom had decided to stay outside and upon locating them waved them back to their side.


"Let'smeet in my room in about an hour, we need to hold a small meeting. We have things to talk about"


---------------An hour later----------------------------

"I didn't  much like teh way taht meeting went" Lckystar commenced as tehy were all seated either on the bed or leaning against a wall or furniture in her small room.

"Why's that?" asked Red in an inquiciive tone.

"Well for one, we could only truly hear him; there's no other way of identifying him other than faint knowledge of his build as well as his voice, one thing that iks me too is he's calling the shots. For all we know, he could be one of them."

"I see your point, but what now?" asked Red, another Trooper was also nodding; he had the same uestion in mind.

"Well...We wait for his call I guess but between now and then let's make preperations. I want general groundwork of this city and teh surrouding are, about a 200 mile radius, check you weapons again and make sure everything'sstill in working order. I'd like for us to be prepared with weapons in the best condition they can be, I alos want all of us to have basic knowledge of what surrounds us in terms of terrain, buldings, any caves man-made or natural; doesn't manke any differnece. The works."

"Let's get to it then!" Red shouted enthusiastically before running off to get started.

Such an enthusiastic fellow...Just wait until he gets  a few really grueling missions under his belt

As Lucky watched the patrol teams depart, she hoped that everything would go well and everyone whom had left ended up coming back. If it came to the point where body bags were needed, she would take it upon herself to personally send the fallen Troopers back home wit hher where they would be properly burried and whatnot ceremonies there were for the dead.

On a whim she picked up her commlink and patched herself through to everyone's comlinks. "I want one person from each patrol team to report to me at regular intervals, I want to know everything that's going on out there. I want to know if there's someone dealing drrugs, I want to know if tehre's a homeless guy taking a shit out in the open. I want to know everything, no matter how mundane it seems"

After  afew seconds she received acknowledgment from all teams. It seemed as though a contact was established between patrol team members and everyone knew who was doing what in a  flash. As she was about to set the device down she had a sudden obvious thought and made sure she was clear on it. "Before I leave you folks to your patrolling, I'd like to let it be know that I want a detailed account from each team upon your return here. If any of you encounter any issues let me know and if need be I'll go down there myself and help deal with the situation"

As she finally ste the comlink down on the table beside her, she thoughtfully stared a the map and hoped that things would go smoothly.